Goodbye's are always painful...

(Hey I saw this prompt on Instagram and got an idea for it so let's go!)

Tyler had been silently walking home on his way from work, hands stuffed into his pockets as he sighed, trying to hug his jacket closer to himself as he began to shiver in the cold February air. He'd been thinking about how to ask his best friend, Josh, to be his Valentine for next week on the 14th but his mind wasn't coming up with anything worth while. Him and Josh had basically been each other's platonic Valentine's every year since they'd been about 14 and cared enough to do Valentine's because all their friends were in relationships and they weren't.

He had been meaning to ask Jenna for god knows how long in January until she eventually came to the conclusion, like most of his friends swore on, that Tyler had been madly in love with his best friend. Tyler, being Tyler, had been trying to ignore that fact for god knows how long until Jenna finally just told him she couldn't try to earn his love if he was in love with someone he'd been denying he was in love with for years... That's not how it worked.

He'd been so lost in thought he barely registered the hands that grabbed onto him from a dingy alleyway, only coming to as a cold edge of a knife sat, ever so nicely, against his throat. He swallowed hard as his frightened eyes met the perpetrator.

"Empty your fucking pockets kid! Now!" The man shouted, keeping a steady stance in front of him. Tyler was NOT about to get mugged, not on his watch, he needed the money that sat comfortably in his pockets.

"Excuse you, I am not 'kid', I am 20..." The man groaned before pulling a hand back and socking the younger in the jaw.

"I don't fucking care! Money! Now!" Tyler whined at the pain already blossoming on his jaw, before deciding he wouldn't go down without a fight. He pretended to sigh defeatedly before reaching his hands into his jeans pockets and pulling out a single twenty.

"There you go... Can I leave now? It's kinda cold." The man went to snatch the money away from him before Tyler was bringing up his knee, as he leaned forward, to hit the man straight in the balls. The man just about registered Tyler's incoming knee and grabbed onto it, laughing before Tyler was bringing his arm back and pushing it back full force into the man full force, straight into his nose. The younger heard a satisfying 'crunch!!' sound as his knuckles made contact with the man's face and they began to wrestle it out. Eventually Tyler managed to push the guy away and shouted at him as he began running down the street, face bloody and scratched.

"You better fucking run!" Tyler breathed heavily, trying to regain what he'd let out of it. He went to put his hands on his hips and felt a searing pain shoot up his side, causing him to flinch away. He brought his hand up and noticed a red stain of blood covering his fingers and part of his palm. "Oh fuck..." Tyler whispered as he collapsed against the wall, holding his hand to the stab wound. "Oh fuck..." He whispered again, not realising when he'd been stabbed, clearly running off the adrenaline of the fight. His breaths truly became laboured and he began laughing as silent tears fell down his cheeks. "Fuck... Fuck, fuck, fuck..." He whined as he pulled his hand away from the wound to stare at the amount of blood again.

He then began using his other hand to fumble for his phone, intending to call 911 and tell them about what had happened and get a paramedic there as soon as possible but instead he found himself hitting '2' on his speed dial, which happened to be Josh's number.

"Hey Ty! When are you gonna get home buddy?" The slightly anxiety-ridden voice of his crush rang through the speaker as Tyler chuckled dryly.

"Yeahhh... I think it's gonna be another long night Josh." He sighed, trying to hold in his sounds of pain as he pushed against his wound harder to keep the blood in.

"Pete can't seriously keep you this long every night surely Ty?" He heard the blue-haired boy whine, making his smile solemnly.

"I don't mind doing it, anyway, how was your day?" He asked casually, just trying to ignore the searing hot pain in his side as he listened to Josh's calming voice.

"It was okay, I nearly had another panic attack earlier but I called Brendon... He helped me calm down a bit, I felt kinda bad after though because he invited me out to lunch but I just couldn't see myself going outside today." His roommate sighed as he sniffed slightly. Tyler's face turned to that of sympathy, his eyes dropping to show the sadness he felt.

"Hey, that's okay Josh. I'm just proud of the progress you've made from being the bumbling mess you were in High School." He heard Josh chuckle dryly, imagining the man running his hands through his baby blue hair, a complete contrast to the red rushing out of Tyler's side right now.

"Yeah, I'm proud of me too... But you know I couldn't of done it without you Ty..." Said man smiled at that but was cut off by himself coughing, spitting out some blood as he did, hissing at the massive pain in his side, his breaths truly becoming more laboured as he tried to keep in just how much it hurt, "Tyler? Is everything okay?!" He asked frantically, Tyler just registering small footsteps on their apartment floor on the other end of the receiver.

"Josh, I'm fine, I'm fine, I just hit my toe." He laughed as he sniffed, trying to stop himself from crying, already feeling the blood start to dry around his mouth and his possible broken nose. "That's beside the point... Josh, can I tell you something?" He found his voice getting quieter as the pain started to dull slightly, peace beginning to make his chocolate eyes close.

"Yeah sure Ty, anything..." He could hear the smile in his blue-haired beauty's voice, which in turn made him smile too.

"I love you." He heard Josh choke on his breath before breathing in again.

"I love you too man." Tyler tensed as he realised Josh didn't know what he meant.

"No, no, Josh you don't understand, I. LOVE. YOU." He said it with more conviction this time, gauging Josh's reaction.

"Oh." Is all he heard.

"I'm sorry if this seems so soon, but do you wanna be my valentine next week? The reason why Jenna broke up with me was because she realised like everyone else in our friend group that I'd been in love with you from the moment you moved from Oletangy to Worthington dude." He heard Josh stutter for a few seconds before his voice was finally coming out.

"Yes." He laughed again and Tyler could hear him crying with joy, "Yes, Tyler, God... Fucking yes! I love you too... Like seriously love you too..." Tyler smiled and went to speak before he felt tranquility begin to close his eyes as the pain began nothing.

"Tyler?" And "OH MY GOD SOMEONES BEEN STABBED COME QUICK!" His hand slowly dropped his phone and he finally let go of the body he was holding on to, still hearing the panicked voice of his blue-haired beauty.